JKWrestling

WWE Smackdown June 1st 2012 - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Joseph Wade

The Good:

• David Otunga interrupting Sheamus’ promo & getting the rub from the two World Title contestants. 
• DAMIEN SANDOW! You’re welcome.
• Del Rio helping to put Dolph Ziggler on his way to the top.
• Ryback’s bloodied eye. It definitely adds to his character.
• Cole’s line about Ryback’s opponents “I know an independent promotion which could use these guys!” 
• Sheamus and Ziggler proving they should be a World Title match somewhere down the road.
• Titus and D Young. The matching tights work. “Millions of dollars, millions of dollars, millions of dollars”. 
• Santino picks up a win. It’s about time - he is the US Champ after all. 
• Tyson Kidd on TV.
• Booking the WWE Title match like the big deal it is.

The Bad:

• Sheamus calling himself a hooligan.
• Sin Cara still can’t hit half of his moves properly & his match was booked horribly. He should have had a lot more offence and a lot less ‘holds’.
• Big Show has been a large part of Raw and Smackdown for the past 3 weeks. There’s too much exposure of him right now. 
• Big Show moving back to his Heel Camel Clutch finisher.
• No focus on the impressive in-ring action between Cody and Kidd because of Christian’s commentary.

The Ugly:

• Sin Cara’s Lighting. Seriously, why?! 
• Why do the monster heels (this time Big Show) always have to take out Zack Ryder? 
• The no finish to the title match. I’m not a fan of booking matches like that because why wouldn’t the interrupting superstar have come out earlier at a point where the match seemed like it was over? 
• Kane being booked as part of No Way Out’s WWE Title match.

TNA’s Live Impact Wrestling Debut Rating Is In.

And it’s not good news. Despite my thoughts on an initial bump for the opening 3 or 4 weeks, TNA are down 12%. Here’s the figures:

0.89 Rating

1.2million viewers

This could be yet another issue with Spike’s lack of promotional work with regards to their changing of timeslot, or it could be a much worse issue of fans simply not wanting to tune in. Either way, this will be disappointing for TNA who did put on a very good show this past week. 

Well TNA damn sure proved me wrong!

A number of the negative aspects I outlined in this post were extinguished in one full swoop by all involved with TNA. 

The production crew were particularly brilliant throughout the Ray and Park story, but were on song all night long. 

Dixie Carter was very good and I enjoyed every part of her performance on the night.

HUGE intrigue going in to next week AND Sting even worked! 

What a show!

TNA Impact Wrestling May 31st 2012 - A segment by segment breakdown.

• Intros - Great work from TNA here. The crowd were hot coming in and the presence of Jeff Hardy, RVD, Mr. Anderson, was a great visual for any newcomers or long time absentee’s of their product.
• Sting vs Roode - Man can Sting work a crowd! That’s a great ability to have for live television. Also, it’s easy to see in a match such as this why Roode is the World Champion. He’s one of the most crisp and realistic looking workers in North America right now. Sting shouldn’t have gone over him though.
• Hulk Hogan’s announcement - Great way to keep an audience after the opening match but it was an underwhelming announcement and did nothing to encourage people to watch the rest of the Impact broadcast - unfortunately.
• Bully Ray and Joseph Parks - Great camera work on Park during Ray’s camera work. Ray also brilliant in his promo (as always) and explained the ‘reality’ of the kayfabe very very well. It’s interesting to see what they’ll do with Parks and Abyss heading in to the Ray match at Slammiversary. Good segment.
• Austin Aries vs Chris Sabin - This match being for the title yet still unannounced ahead of time wasn’t a good move for TNA. However, the match itself was world class from two great x division workers. I also liked the hint of Joe vs Aries too.
• Guthceck segment - Great TV. TNA are definitely doing this right and Taz is very good in that role. 
• Dixie Carter & Brooke Hogan - Great to see the President on the live TV show. Wish she would have been announced/opening though as it would have been more impactful that way. Great to place the angle that Brooke was chosen by Dixie, not Hogan, too.
• Devon vs Jeff Hardy - No surprise Jeff got the vote as he’s still a huge star. It was followed by a cool bit of production to follow him to the ring too, I like. Typical ‘vote’ circumstance that there’s a no finish though - yawn. Cool moment with Devon and Jeff teaming up though.
• James Storm - Feel like I’ve seen this all before. They’re definitely stretching it too thin - inevitably with the intention of revealing his decision at Slammiversary.
• Gut Check pt.2 - Joey Ryan owns it. His original promo was good and his look is unique and different - something TNA NEEDS. Bruce Pritchard seemed like he was trying to be a heel with a no-explanation of his no. Taz and Ryan confrontation was sensational! That is what live TV should be. Brilliant!
• Daniels vs AJ - Regardless of how good the match was, AJ needs to start losing to put over this ‘distraction’ angle. Also, why did we have to wait until the end of the show to see Kurt Angle?! Kaz and Daniels go over in a major way to end the show, brilliant move! TNA’s Tag division revived in one full swoop. AND WHAT AN AWESOME ENDING!! MARKED OUT, BRO!

“You are finished! You are finished!” 

TNA Impact Wrestling Going Live

May 31st 2012

Author: Joseph Wade

As of today, TNA Impact Wrestling is beginning their Summer of live recordings for the US’ Spike Television broadcaster. The announcement was made official as late as last week by General Manager Hulk Hogan and TNA have decided to move forward with the concept by introducing us via a Lumberjack match between World Champ Bobby Roode and the returning ‘Icon’ Sting at their new start time of 8/7c. 

This brings me to my first aggrievance with the companies deliverance of what should be a big deal. Why did they ruin Sting’s return? 

Sure, announcing Sting in a high profile match and being able to use him in local and national advertising is a positive for the companies exposure and should boost ratings - if only a little. However, I would argue that the promise of his return would have been much more effective.

The promise of the long time wrestling star returning on live television would have created the intrigue that all good live programming needs, and would have certainly had this wrestling fan more interested in this weeks show. I’d go as far as saying that such a creative decision is as much of a joke as Sting’s new character (if you can pardon the pun). 

Next I feel it necessary to discuss the importance of the debut of this movement being designated only for the Summer months. If you can excuse my abrupt honesty, this decision is pure stupidity! 

It’s warm, sunny, and people enjoy being outside. Simple. Ratings are down for every television product over the Summer months, which is why the majority of sports are played in the winter, and TNA will be no different despite their ‘going live’. The result of the summer months lull against the new concept will have the dirtsheets deeming their venture as a failure and will likely have Spike vote against doing the same in the future. The timeslot will further the negative effect of the Summers hot weather as many of TNA’s potential audience will still be out sunbathing. A suitable alternative would have been to have TNA go live for the few months leading up to their October Bound For Glory Pay Per View, building the hype - and the audience - for their biggest pay per view of the year. 

With that being said, the financial ramifications of TNA’s latest attempts to elevate themselves will again be detrimental to the company. The higher production costs of providing a live show set against inevitably lower ratings will further force TNA in to the Red. Which brings me to a further point as to how this move will be bad for the company, the production. 

We’ve seen during Pay Per Views, and their one off live broadcasts, that the TNA technical crew aren’t quite as well versed at capturing the action as the WWE staff. In fact, there have been many cases where TNA’s action has been diminished by unwanted shot changes and the capturing of ‘talking’ and other technical parts of the wrestling business that the camera should be trying to hide. 

Now, with all of the negatives out of the way, I’ll be coming to the positives of the move. 

First and foremost the excitement and atmosphere of live television is something that can’t be replicated. TNA have been doing a very good job of implementing realism in to their storyline’s and promo’s recently and going live will definitely benefit these particular aspects of their programming. Furthermore, the live aspect of the show should open itself up to the potential for surprise. Surprise appearances and debut’s, as well as surprise on the cuff remarks during promo’s, and a bigger possibility for surprise ‘kiss my ass management’ moments like those seen with Brian Pillman in WCW ‘95. 

The live aspect also lends itself to interaction with the social media, something I feel TNA has done better than the WWE in recent months. JB’s role as ‘head of social interaction’ has really been effective in the smaller spots on Pay Per Views and could be used effectively on live television. The first and most prominent example of this being used effectively is in TNA’s announcement of a “Pick the Challenger” match for the TV Title. I believe this is a great way to introduce the concept, provide free promotion over social networking through trending topics on twitter and what not, and allow Spike to get a better representation of the audience TNA has. 

The final positive I am going to offer in this article is the potential boost in ratings that TNA will get from the IWC because of their inability to read spoilers and therefore miss the show whilst picking up information on the key parts. 

All in all, I predict that this move will make TNA: Impact Wrestling a much better product to watch over the coming months but should be financially detrimental and shall not help the company receive higher ratings from the 3rd week on - after the initial bump. 

What do you think is going to happen on tonight’s LIVE Impact Wrestling?

I personally think a ‘surprise’ will by Abyss and Joseph Parks being unveiled as the same person. 

Joe